Martin Luther

Faith Requires Skepticism

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Question everything. Faith requires a healthy dose of skepticism about everything we think we know.

Wait, faith requires skepticism?

Of course it does. Our Heavenly Father commands us to love Him with all of our hearts, souls, and minds. Did you get that last one? Minds.

God wants us to ask questions, examine His wonders, and search the Scriptures seeking truth. That requires an inquisitive mind.

The most dangerous aspect of the doctrines of men is that they are usually close enough to biblical truth that they fool even the most sincere and honest among the faithful.

Some of those doctrines of men are so convoluted and confusing that they present stumbling blocks to those outside the faith and sometimes cause the faithful to abandon the faith.

We should faithfully seek to understand God’s truths about His nature, His creation, and His will for His people, even if that means challenging long‑held doctrines and theologies that were devised and propagated by religious folks for their own benefit — or for the purposes of the principalities and powers behind them.

Remember who the enemies of our Lord were? The religious leaders of his time and culture who had perverted and changed the Word of God into the doctrines of men.

Remember the lesson of the Reformation? Churchianity was challenged, and the centuries‑old religious status quo was called to task — salvation by grace, not ceremonies and dead works.

Bible Rebel will be asking questions and challenging assumptions here. We believe it’s high time for a New Reformation, or at least a fresh look at the old wine in the old wineskins.

Every Wednesday we will be raising some important questions about commonly held doctrines and assumptions within modern Churchianity.

Stay tuned.

They Said It: Four Quotes On The Book Of Job

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Here are four insightful quotes from well-known religious leaders about the Book of Job.

St. Augustine

“Job teaches us that even when God seems silent, He is not absent; faith holds fast in the dark.”

Pope John Paul II

“In Job we see the innocent sufferer whose cry becomes a meeting place between human pain and divine mystery.”

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks

“Job reminds us that faith is not the absence of questions but the courage to bring our questions to God.”

Martin Luther

“Job’s trials show that God’s people may be pressed beyond measure, yet the Word of God sustains them when all else fails.”

They Said It: Four Quotes On The Books Of Chronicles

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Four quotes from well-known religious figures about the Old Testament Books of I and II Chronicles:

Jerome (Early Church Father)

“Chronicles is not mere repetition, but a sacred reminder that God remembers His people even when they forget Him.”

Martin Luther

“The Chronicler teaches us that God preserves a remnant and keeps His promises, even through the failures of kings.”

Matthew Henry

“In Chronicles we see the mercy of God magnified, for the story is retold to comfort the returned exiles with the faithfulness of their covenant God.”

F. F. Bruce (Modern biblical scholar)

“Chronicles is theology in narrative form, showing that true kingship and true worship belong to God alone.”

They Said It: Four Quotes On The Book Of Ruth

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Here are four poignant quotes about the relevance of the eighth book of the Bible, the Book of Ruth.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks
“The Book of Ruth is the supreme example in Tanakh of hesed—loving-kindness—shown not by miracles or power, but by ordinary people in everyday life.”

Martin Luther
“This is a lovely and comforting book, for it teaches that God works through the simplest and most ordinary events to bring about His greatest purposes.”

Augustine of Hippo
“In Ruth we see the Gentile brought into the people of God, prefiguring the calling of the nations through Christ.”

John Piper
“The Book of Ruth shows us how God is always doing ten thousand things in our lives, and we may be aware of only three of them.”

They Said It: Famous Quotes About The Book Of Romans

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Here are some famous quotes from influential religious leaders about Paul’s Epistle to the Romans. 

Martin Luther

“The Epistle to the Romans is the true masterpiece of the New Testament and the very purest Gospel. It is worthy not only that every Christian should know it word for word, by heart, but occupy himself with it every day, as the daily bread of the soul.”

— Martin Luther, Preface to the Epistle to the Romans (1522)

John Calvin

“When anyone understands this Epistle, he has a passage opened to him to the understanding of the whole Scripture.”

— John Calvin, Commentary on Romans (1540)

Frederic Godet

“Every great spiritual revival in the Church will be connected as effect and cause with a deeper understanding of this book.”

— Frederic Godet, Commentary on St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans (1869)

John Stott

“Romans is the fullest, plainest, and grandest statement of the Gospel in the New Testament. Its message is still as relevant and revolutionary as when it was first written.”

— John R. W. Stott, The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World (1994)

They Said It: Quotes About The Apostle Paul

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They Said It is a regular feature from Bible Rebel, highlighting quotes from various folks on various topics of interest and relevance to our readers. Here are some memorable quotes about the Apostle Paul – the one from Thomas Jefferson is especially interesting.

Martin Luther (German Reformer):
“The epistles of Paul are the clearest gospel of all. He deals with the true essentials of Christian doctrine with such simplicity, clarity, and depth that they must be treasured above all other writings.”

    John Chrysostom (4th-century Church Father):
    “Put the whole world on one side of the scale, and you will see that the soul of Paul outweighs it.”

      David Hume (Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, skeptic of religion):
      “The conversion of Paul… is a strong proof of the truth of Christianity.”
      (Paraphrased from his Essay on Miracles, where he acknowledges Paul’s radical transformation as a historical argument worth serious consideration.)

        Thomas Jefferson (3rd U.S. President):
        “Paul was the first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus.”
        (From a letter to William Short, 1820. Jefferson admired Jesus’ moral teachings but believed Paul distorted them with dogma.)

          They Said It: Quotes About Luther And The Reformation

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          Introducing a new regular feature from Bible Rebel – They Said It, highlighting quotes from various folks on various topics of interest and relevance to our readers.

          Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German writer and statesman):

          “The Reformation was a great act of emancipation by which man was restored to himself. Luther’s discovery of the Bible opened the door to the modern age.”

          Thomas Carlyle (Scottish historian and essayist):

          “Luther was the great Reformer, the man who alone could challenge the power of Rome and shatter the spiritual bondage of the age. His words were half-battles.”

          Will Durant (American historian, The Story of Civilization):

          “Martin Luther was the most powerful man of his century. He freed half of Europe from papal rule and gave birth to Protestantism, which would reshape the Western world.”